Transmigrant Certificate, issued in 1921 to a third class passenger on the White Star Line R.M.S. Olympic. It is intended as a health certificate notifying anyone that the carrier had been inspected, vaccinated, examined and vermin-free.

Olympic Transmigrant Certificate

Will Margarethe 3. Class

Coming From A Non-Infected District Germany, Proceeding to Southampton

Has been, at the Auswandererhallen, Hamburg [Note 1]

Vaccinated, Examined for Vermin, After Disinfection, and Found Vermin-Free, This Date 27 September 1921. Subsequent Exposure to Verminous Infestation Renders This Certificate Invalid.

Date of Departure: 29 September 1921

Acting Assistant Surgeon

United States Public Health Service

/s/ J. Donovan, Acting Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Public Health Service

Other Signatories: Dr. Med. W. Unua and Burr Teiguson

Note 1: Auswandererhallen were immigrant huts set up by the steamship companies to house immigrants in transit.

Infectious diseases such as typhus fever, typhoid fever, cholera, smallpox, dysentery and other diseases spreading by alimentary tracts caused the greatest epidemiological problem . The considerable number of smallpox cases were noted in 1920-1922.

Commentary by The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives

This is one of the poorest examples of layout for a health certificate we have encountered. Appears that it was made so that a quick glance, you would know that the person was Vaccinated, Examined and Vermin-Free, or in other words, safe to travel on your vessel.